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DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060
Online Library of Selected Images:
-- SHIPS of the BRITISH NAVY --
HMS Wivern (Turret Ship, 1865-1922).
Originally intended to be CSS Mississippi.
Also briefly known as Egyptian El Monassir.
HMS Wivern, a 2750-ton ironclad turret ship, was built
at Birkenhead, England. Ordered by the Confederate government
in 1862 as one of two sisters, her true ownership was kept secret
under the "cover story" that she was to become an Egyptian
warship named El Monassir. Upon delivery to the Confederacy,
she was to be named Mississippi. Strong diplomatic pressure
by the United States led the British government to seize the two
ships in October 1863, while they was fitting out. This action
undoubtedly prevented the Confederate Navy from posing an extremely
dangerous threat to the Federal blockade, and to the Northern
seaboard, as these two ironclads would have been more than a match
for all but one of the United States Navy's seagoing warships.
Purchased for the Royal Navy in early 1864, the ship was renamed
Wivern and completed in October 1865. She served with the
Channel Fleet until 1868. Following a refit that eliminated her
square sails in favor of a fore and aft rig, the turret ship served
for several months in 1870 as coastguard ship at Hull but then
spent nearly a decade in reserve. In 1880, Wivern was returned
to active service and sent to Hong Kong as part of that colony's
defenses. In 1904 she was reduced to harbor support service. HMS
Wivern was sold for scrapping in June 1922.
This page features all our views of the British turret ship
Wivern.
For views of Wivern's sister ship, see: HMS
Scorpion.
Click on the small photograph to prompt
a larger view of the same image.
Photo #: NH 52526
HMS Wivern (British Turret Ironclad, 1865-1922)
At anchor in the Hamoaze River, off Plymouth, England, in 1865.
The original print is mounted on a carte de visite.
Note the lowered bulwarks abreast her two turrets, hammocks stowed
around the turret tops to form rifle pits, and her tripod fore
and main masts. She was reportedly the first ship fitted with
tripod masts, which eliminated standing rigging, thus increasing
the arc of her turrets' gunfire.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 79KB; 740 x 455 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 71211
HMS Wivern (British Turret Ironclad, 1865-1922)
Moored off Plymouth, England, during the later 1860s, with another
ironclad in the left distance.
Wivern's bulwarks and smokestack are in the "up"
position.
Copied from the photographic album "Types of Ships in the
British Navy", prepared in 1877.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 53KB; 740 x 505 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 65901
HMS Wivern (British Turret Ironclad, 1865-1922)
In harbor, circa the 1870s or 1880s. Her rig had been reduced,
as seen here, in about 1868, and she was sent to Hong Kong in
1880 as a harbor defense ship.
Note the ship-of-the-line being repainted in the left background.
Collection of Rear Admiral Ammen C. Farenholt, USN(MC).
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 66KB; 740 x 505 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 61408
HMS Wivern (British Turret Ironclad, 1865-1922)
Line engraving, published in "Harper's Weekly", 1866.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 122KB; 700 x 570 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 48145
"Rebel Ram constructed by the Lairds"
Nineteenth Century line engraving depicting the outboard profile
and rig of the two turret ironclads laid down in 1862 by Laird
Brothers for the Confederate States. Intended to become CSS Mississippi
and CSS North Carolina, they were seized by the British
government in 1863, purchased in 1864 and completed in October
1865 as HMS Wivern and HMS Scorpion.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 92KB; 740 x 490 pixels |
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Page made 24 July 2001